Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1887-04-22
HARMLESS THIEVES.
| American PIutocrats Who Appropriate the
| Coats-of- Arms of English Nobility.


American PIutocrats who Appropriate the
Coats-of-Arm of English Nobility.
1t is not generally known, but it is
nevertheless fact that every large
carriage manufacturing establishment
in this country has library. The
works of only two authors, are in this
library, and these are the productions
of Mr.. Burke and Mr.. Lodge. Burke's
"Peerage and Baronetage," Lodges
book of the same title, and Burke's
General Armory" are all that are
needed, but they are Indispensable.
A man on whom fortune has smiled
is having a carriage built. 1t is to be
heavy numbering affair, and guaran-
teed to have a look of ancient respect
ability about it before it comes out of
the shop. Now he, sensible man, had
intended to have his cipher on the
panels, but the ladies of the family are
more ambitious and keep at him until,
in moment of weakness, he consents
to decorate his family carriage with a
coat arms. The next question is
how to get one. Heretofore he and his
ancestors have struggled along with
out armorial bearings and never espec-
tally felt the need of them. But now
things are changed. If he lived in
Brazil he would endow a hospital, and
the Emperor would make him baron
with coat-of-arms of great complex
ty. If he were an Englishman, he
might do hundred things less expen-
sive and get a pedigree and coat-of-
arms from the College of Heralds and
write Sir before his name. But being
an American, there is no way for him
to get coat-of-arms except to steal
it, and so the respectable old gentle
man is driven to the first theft of his
life. The New York College of Her.
.ldry being no longer in existence, he
contides in the carriage manufacturers
The carriage man brings out his
library and in the seclusion of his pri-
vate office the coat-of-arms of some
more or less noble lord is APP
propriated. to be subsequently
transferred to the rich mans
family coach. These people are rather
particular about their arms when they
once get started in the selection. Say,
for instance, that the man who wants
IL coat-of-arms is named Smith. The
carriage man opens his heraldric record
| and reads: 'Smith, Edward Augustus
| Patrick Peter, First Baronet of Mud
towne, County Kerry, Ireland" mo,
no." says the rich man. ''Our family
are English by descent"
A few more pages are turned over
and then under a menagere of herald
ric animals the carriage manufacturer
reads "Billingsgate, Marquis OF
(Smith-Fitz PlantageneD. James Au-
| gustus Douglas George, Marquis and
| Earl. Baron Smith. of County of \ DIRK.
| The Marquis assumed in 1876 by royal
| license the additional surname of Fit2
| Plantagenet for himself and his issue
and quartered the PlantaSenet arms
| with his own"
"Ah! that must be the one, )" says the
seeker after a coat-of-arms. 81 have
heard that our family came from Y ork
shire"
And so the arms of the Marquis o
Billngsgate blaze on the panels of the
new carriage when it rolls along the
avenue.
Appropriations of coats-of-ar woul,
make themselves less absurd
the, would read rudimentary bool
on heraldry before they made the APP
preparation. For instance, Mr.. Smith
in appropriating the coat-of-arms
the Most Honorable the Marquis o
Billingsgate," takes not only the arm
of Smith, but the arms of Fitz Planta
genet and likewise the supporter
which can only be used by u Peer Q
the Realm. He surmounts the Who'll
with the cap and coronet of a Marquis
and any one versed in such matter
would suppose that Peer was ridin
in the carriage instead of plain MI
Smith. Now, if Mr.. Smith did reall
belong to the family of the Marquis, a
he did not he would be entitled onl
to the arms of Smith, without the core
net, the supporters or the motto
Y. Tribune.